Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat (9 page)
Read Grace Revolution: Experience the Power to Live Above Defeat Online
Authors: Joseph Prince
Tags: #Religion / Christian Life / Personal Growth, #RELIGION / Christian Life / Spiritual Growth, #Religion / Christian Life / Inspirational
Now, if Paul was addressing the Jews of his day, especially those who were rejecting Jesus as the final sacrifice and returning to temple sacrifices, does Hebrews 10 have any application today? Yes, Hebrews 10:26 can today be applied to unbelievers who hear the truth of the gospel of grace, and with open eyes turn their backs on our Lord Jesus and the salvation He offers. Just imagine: God offers His salvation and all of His blessings in His hands to someone who, having knowledge of the magnitude of these blessings, slaps His hands away. That is what it means to sin willfully today and insult the Spirit of grace. And for such a person, as long as he keeps rejecting Jesus’ perfect sacrifice and finished work, there no longer remains a sacrifice for his sins. He has rejected the only sacrifice God accepts. In the end this unbeliever will have to face God’s judgment for his rejection of the Lord.
But what is God’s Word when it comes to judgment and
His children
? Let me show you what the Scriptures
do
say to establish your heart in the security of your salvation in Christ. The Greek word for “judgment” in Hebrews 10:27 is
krisis
, which means a sentence of “condemnation and punishment.”
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Now turn with me to John 5:24
and read Jesus’ own words: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment [
krisis
], but has passed from death into life.” The same word for “judgment” (
krisis
) used in Hebrews 10:27 is used here in this Scripture regarding believers.
Can anything be more clear and transparent? What is it that God wants us to be assured of? That we believers will never come into
krisis
judgment! We have passed from death into life. True believers need never fear the Lord’s judgment, as all of the fire of judgment fell fully on our Lord at Calvary. Today you can have full assurance of salvation in Christ your Savior. Amen!
As Jesus extended His forgiveness and gift of no condemnation to the woman caught in adultery, so I preach the same grace that Jesus exemplified and offered. As a preacher of our Lord Jesus’ grace, I never endorse or excuse anyone’s sin. However, my job is not to point them to more laws, but to our Lord Jesus.
If either my pastoral team or I am involved in counseling anyone who is living in adultery, we will tell the person in no uncertain terms that they are not living under grace. Since sin is having dominion over them, how can they be living under grace?
We will point the person to the grace of our Lord Jesus, but we will also make it very clear to them that sin comes with destructive consequences, and that it is not acceptable for them to continue in their sin. Then we will tell the person to go back to their spouse and family, and most times the person will!
The point is, we are here to help those who are struggling with sin
and who have a genuine desire to be helped. But for those who are bent on living a lifestyle of sin, we don’t ever endorse or condone their lifestyles. Do we love them? One hundred percent. And we will be there for them in a heartbeat if they genuinely want to be helped.
We’ve found that many times, the individual who is insistent on living a lifestyle of sin will stop attending church by his or her own choice. Interestingly, it appears that the few who persistently want to live in sin find that they can’t remain too long in a church that is preaching the true gospel of grace. It’s hard to keep sinning against a loving Savior.
I’m sharing all this to tell you how a grace church is to be pastored. We don’t make light of sin. As shepherds we have a responsibility to protect God’s precious flock from wolves. The church opens its doors and welcomes everyone. However, if there is predatory behavior, we have to step in to ensure that our congregation and their children are safe. We see how a good shepherd protects his sheep in the example of David in the Old Testament. Even as a young shepherd boy, David went after the lion and the bear that took his sheep, and rescued his sheep right out of the mouths of those predators (see 1 Sam. 17:34–36). In the same way, we don’t back down from sinful behavior that is hurting our flock, and we act to protect our “sheep.” I have no doubt that you would do the same to protect your family and loved ones.
When I preach that all our sins have been forgiven and that we are perpetually under the fountain of the ever-cleansing blood of Jesus, another question I’m often asked is,
What about the confession of sins spoken of in 1 John 1:9? The verse says clearly, “If we confess our sins, He
is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” Don’t we have to confess our sins in order to be forgiven and cleansed of all unrighteousness?
My friend, you are looking at someone who went all the way with the traditional interpretation and understanding of this verse. As a young adult earnestly wanting to live a holy life and please God, I started confessing my sins all the time when I received that teaching. I didn’t want to spend even one minute not being “right with God.” So when just one wrong thought crossed my mind, I would confess that sin immediately. I would cover my mouth and whisper my confession, even if I was in the middle of a soccer match with my friends!
Needless to say, I appeared weird to my friends. I was also perplexed as to why my Christian friends weren’t confessing their sins as I was. Why weren’t they serious about wanting to be 100 percent right with God?
The constant, unceasing confession of my sins made me extremely sin-conscious. I became so aware of and troubled by every negative thought that I believed there was no more forgiveness for my sins. I even began to believe that I had lost my salvation and was going to hell! The enemy took advantage of my obsession with needing to confess every sin and placed me under constant condemnation. The oppression grew so heavy that I felt as if my mind was about to snap!
I’ve shared more extensively about my past struggle with 1 John 1:9 and what the verse is actually about in my book
Unmerited Favor
.
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So let me give you just a quick understanding of the subject here:
• The first chapter of 1 John was not written to believers but to Gnostics who did not believe that Jesus came in the flesh, hence the uncharacteristic opening in the first epistle of John.
There was no greeting to believers, unlike what we find in his second and third epistles. Instead, the apostle John opens up his first epistle with a direct address to the serious heresy of the Gnostics—“That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard
, which we have
seen
with our eyes, which we have
looked upon
, and our hands have
handled
” (1 John 1:1, emphasis mine). John was telling them that Jesus had indeed come in the flesh, as he and his fellow disciples had heard, seen, and touched Jesus.
• It is only in chapter 2 of John’s first epistle that you see the phrase “My little children” for the first time, intimating that from that chapter on, the apostle John was addressing believers.
• The Gnostics also believed that they had no sin. So the apostle John was telling them that if they would acknowledge and confess their sins, God would forgive them and cleanse them from all unrighteousness (see 1 John 1:8–9).
• The early Christians did not have the book of 1 John for some fifty years, so their getting “right with God” could not have been through the confession of sins.
• Apostle Paul, who wrote two-thirds of the epistles to the churches, never once taught on confession of sins. In fact, in his letter to the Corinthian Christians, many of whom were committing sins like visiting temple prostitutes, he didn’t tell them to go and confess their sins to get right with God. Rather he reminded them of who they were in Christ—“Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (1 Cor. 3:16
KJV
)
• Our being “right with God” is not based on the imperfect confession of sins by imperfect man, but on the riches of God’s grace and the perfect sacrifice of His Son.
•
Those who believe that 1 John 1:9 is telling believers to confess their sin every time they sin need to realize that
every
sin needs to be recognized and confessed (otherwise, based on that verse, one is still unrighteous). You cannot pick and choose what to confess or confess only the sins you remember. And it is not humanly possible to confess
every
sin in thought, word, and deed.
• The word “confess” in 1 John 1:9 is the Greek
homologeo
, which means “to say the same thing as” or “to agree with.”
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To confess our sins, therefore, is to say the same things about our sins as God does: that it is sin, and that our sins have been forgiven and washed away by the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ (see Rev. 1:5). When you have sinned and realize you have sinned, true confession is agreeing with God’s Word and expressing your gratefulness to Him for the reality of your forgiveness in Christ.
To the theologian, I want to share with you a fresh and powerful revelation that the Lord just opened my eyes to. (This is so fresh that at the time of this writing, I have yet to preach this in my church.) In my study, He asked me to examine the word
sins
in 1 John 1:9 and to see if it is a noun or verb in the original Greek text. Are you ready for this?
In the two instances where we see the word “sins” in 1 John 1:9, it is the Greek noun
hamartia
that is used. According to well-known Bible scholar William Vine,
hamartia
(“a missing of the mark”) indicates “a principle or source of action, or an inward element producing acts… a governing principle or power.”
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In other words, it refers to the sin principle, or our sinful state on account of Adam’s sin. By
using the noun form of this word, John was clearly not referring to our committing of individual acts of sin, or he would have used the verb form,
hamartano
.
In the light of this, can you see how 1 John 1:9 is not talking about confessing our sins every time we sin in thought or in deed? John was speaking of the need to acknowledge and confess to God that we are sinners because of Adam’s sin, as well as to receive the total forgiveness for all our sins through Jesus’ finished work. How often do we need to do this? Only once. That’s why 1 John 1:9 is primarily a salvation verse, one that encourages the sinner to acknowledge and confess his sinful state or “sinnerhood,” get born again by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, and have his sinful state through Adam replaced with a new righteous state through Christ. The heretical Gnostic doctrine did not subscribe to a belief in man’s sinful state. John was addressing this heresy directly in the first chapter of 1 John and encouraging the Gnostics to confess their sinful state and receive the Lord’s complete forgiveness and total cleansing from all their unrighteousness through His finished work at the cross.
Now, what does the apostle John say then, about our committing of sins after we’ve become believers? Just two verses later in the second chapter of 1 John, John answers this question as he begins his address to believers: “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous” (1 John 2:1).
This time, the words “sin” and “sins” are the Greek verb
hamartano
. John is now referring to believers’ committing of sins—their sinful thoughts and deeds. What does John say regarding this? He reminds us that when we fail as believers, we have an Advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ.
Because of our Lord Jesus and what He has accomplished at the
cross, we have forgiveness and we still stand righteous before God even when we’ve missed it. As the apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believers who had failed that they were still the temple of the Holy Spirit, John reminds us of who we are in Christ and who we have representing us at God’s right hand.
Can you see that the Bible’s answer to overcoming sin is always to remind believers of their righteous identity in Christ? This is not to encourage us to sin but to encourage us to look to our Lord Jesus, to see our sins punished at the cross and to live victoriously and gloriously for Him. That is what true repentance is all about—turning to the cross and returning to His grace! When you fail today, know that you can talk to God honestly about your failing, but do it with a revelation of the cross of our Lord Jesus. See your sins punished in His body and receive afresh His forgiveness and unmerited favor to reign over your sins.
Once, when I was preaching in Italy, a prominent psychiatrist to whom I had been introduced shared with me something heartbreaking. He told me that he has counseled many sincere Christians who are living defeated lives, some even in mental asylums, because they believe that being right with God hangs on their ability to confess every sin.
My friend, can you see how dangerous this teaching is? Without the assurance of complete forgiveness, these believers are sin-conscious, burdened with guilt and shame, condemned by the enemy, joyless, and totally insecure about their salvation.
Yet the truth is that every believer has total forgiveness in Christ,
Whose eternal blood keeps on cleansing them from all sin. The moment they know this truth, heaven comes into their souls, as in the case of Frances Havergal. And the effect this produces in their lives is not a desire to go out and sin, but a desire to live a life that glorifies their Savior. He who knows that he is forgiven much—forgiven of all, actually—will love much (see Luke 7:47
NLT
).
So is Joseph Prince against a Christian’s confessing his sins? Let me say this clearly: I do believe in the confession of sins and I do confess my sins still. But there’s a big difference now—I confess my sins knowing that all my sins are
already
forgiven. I don’t confess my sins to
be
forgiven. Because I have a close relationship with my heavenly Father, I can be honest with Him when I’ve done wrong. I can talk to Him about it, receive His grace for my weakness, and move forward knowing full well that He has already forgiven me through His Son’s sacrifice. And I no longer worry about the fact that I can’t possibly confess every sin, because I know it’s not my confessions that save me, but the blood of Jesus.
Beloved, our forgiveness was purchased perfectly with our Lord’s precious blood. It is not contingent on how perfectly we are able to confess our every sin. How can our forgiveness be dependent on the consistency, frequency, and quality of our confessions? That is bound to fail! Our forgiveness is dependent on our faith in the quality of our Lord’s sinless blood that was shed at the cross. There is a world of difference between these two bases for our forgiveness, and it results in a world of difference to your peace of mind!
Dear reader, grace doesn’t make light of sin; it is the power to break free from sin! And this is the
present truth
of grace in which God wants us to be established (see 2 Pet. 1:12)—that concerning the confession of sins, we confess our sins because we
are already
forgiven, not
to obtain
God’s forgiveness. The more conscious you are of how
forgiven you already are in Christ, the more you will truly live above every defeat.